Guinness's Christmas

Since Guinness was doing so well at being loose in a room with us, I expected that, once he settled down from the excitement of meeting his little nephew Kevin, he would be fine. Our previous dogs sensed the fragility of a young child or older person. Guinness does not seem to recognize that he must be gentler with such people. Once company arrived, he was too filled with Christmas joy for us to tolerate his exuberant behavior. Thus, Guinness spent most of Christmas week in his crate. We never dared to let him loose with Kevin. He was so ecstatic to meet this wonderful little fella that he would have tramped him with no intent to harm. When we were outside playing in the snow, I kept Guinness tethered to my waist.

Brandy and Jeremy are used to crazy dogs and had fun playing with him. He did his “slain in the Spirit” backwards flop for them to have his tummy rubbed.

Santa brought Guinness a rubber hamburger, and Kevin’s cats brought him a fuzzy gingerbread boy. He was thrilled with his gifts. The hamburger quickly had a big bite out of it and the gingerbread boy was losing his stuffing within hours. While we were opening our presents, I presumed that we could leave him free in the den with the French doors closed allowing him to visually be a part of our celebration. As we continued our gift opening, the thought struck me that my present from Grant, a beautiful sweater wrap, was hanging on my desk chair. With a gasp, I flew into the den to find that Guinness had already torn a sleeve apart. Thankfully, the store had another one.